Note Taking Skills

Aussie term of the day…

“Rock Mellon” – evidentially what they call a cantaloupe here.  I have been getting them for pretty cheap at the store as of late and every time I mentioned getting a “cantaloupe” all my housemates looked really confused. When I explained to Blessing, my roommate, what we called Rock Mellon’s in the States she responded with “Oh! I had always wondered what a cantaloupe was!”

            It’s the end of the week and I have finally done a run through of all my classes and I just might have my routes to classes figured mostly out!  I’m still trying to figure out what to do with all my spare time between classes though because I don’t really have any homework yet and I don’t know of all that much to do on campus yet. 

A little forested creek side patch on campus that apparently attracts a lot of the wildlife in the area.
 You see bush turkey around there a lot!

            Today I spent an hour of it just hanging out with Bec and Blessing and then, with another hour left, decided to tag along to one of their lectures.  It was on the Anatomy of the Heart and Thorax but other than the title I couldn’t tell you a whole ton about it. 

Lets get ready to learn some Med stuff!

            A good deal of it went right over my head and for the most part I just spent it writing ridiculous and off the wall notes.  I gave them to Bec when I finished and she is holding them as a trophy reminder of me, along with the book of “Juliaisms” she has been starting up. I think they have been scanned and distributed among the rest of the Med students in the lodge now and evidentially my note taking skills have become quite notorious! This is what happens when you take a Wildlife Biology person to a Med lecture...

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            Later in the evening the Northreach young adults put on another evening event, this one being laser tag and a bon fire which was located in the field right behind our house. To be honest, my initial reaction about the fire was Uhhh, isn’t it hot enough already? But it was strangely enjoyably even in the heat of evening. And of course we got to roast some marshmallows! Strangely enough, a good deal of the people I have talked to here have either never had a s’more before or don’t even know what they are! I think I need to amend this terrible tragedy with my housemates sometime soon… That is, if we can find some sort of equivalent to Graham Crackers here.

            After the bon fire and laser tag night had ended with some good and fun karaoke, those of us at the lodge headed back to turn in for the night.  Hannah had absconded with some marshmallows from the bon fire because I was being a terrible influence and telling her about the joys of microwaving peeps during Easter time.  Oh, and they don’t have Peeps here either.  So naturally I had to explain Peep joisting (when you place two Peep facing each other with toothpicks sticking out and microwave until one pops the other). Oh, I am really a terrible influence.  Bad American! Bad!

            And then there was the frog in the window incident.  Just telling you that I study Fisheries and Wildlife as my degree should give you a hint that I really like wildlife and that includes all the amphibian and reptile types.  I had been hearing the frogs and toads outside my window singing incessantly for weeks and so to finally see one in the window, as you might guess, brought joy to my heart. Well, four of us gals were sitting in the kitchen, Blessing behind me and Bec and Hannah in front by the window, when I suddenly take in a deep, sudden breath and screech out an exclamation of “FROG!!!” I cannot fully describe what happened next, only that within the next few seconds Hannah and Bec had both shot foreword in startled panic and ended up sprawled on the floor in uncontrollable laughter.

            Apparently my sudden outburst of excitement had come as quite a shock to the both of them, evidently, and in the shock of the moment had thought I had yelled “GUNSHOT!!” thus causing them both to shoot foreword and effectively drop to the floor. I will admit that we all spent a good deal of time after that rolling on the floor in fits of hysterical laughter.